April 05, 2011

Two Hundred Years of Waltz - Workshops, NYC (Sunday, April 10, 2011)

I will be teaching a trio of workshops sponsored by The Vintage Dance Society and Specialty Productions in New York City this Sunday, April 10th, two of which focus on nineteenth-century waltz and one on modern-day variations.

The workshops will be held at the DANY Studios, Studio 10, on West 38th Street between 8th and 9th, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. No experience is necessary and no partner is needed.

The cost is $15 per workshop, two for $25, or all three for $35. No pre-registration needed -- just show up!

Here's the official announcement:

Specialty Productions and The Vintage Dance Society present: a day of waltzes from the 1810s through the 2010s!

Join dance historian/teacher Susan de Guardiola for a smorgasbord of rotary waltz as a freestyle couple dance, sequence dance, and formation dance from its earliest days in the Regency era to the modern waltzes of today.

12:00-1:45 The Regency WaltzTravel back to the 1810s and 1820s in the earliest days of the waltz’s popularity! Enjoy the beautiful “attitudes” of the arms in the Regency-era turning waltz, learn the lively leaps of the sauteuse, and enjoy a selection of Regency-era country dances and quadrille figures in waltz time.

2:00-3:45 Late Victorian Waltz Quadrilles & Sequence DancesJump forward to the end of the nineteenth century and the beautiful square and sequence dances that mix easy figures with whirling interludes of waltz. Review the early turning waltz and then dance waltz quadrilles and early sequence dances like the Rye Waltz and the Veleta Waltz.

4:00-5:45 Living Waltz Tradition & "The Congress of Vienna"Waltz remains a living tradition! Working from the basic turning waltz of the nineteenth century, take it into the present day with variations suited to the modern dance floor, then come full circle to learn “The Congress of Vienna,” a waltz sequence dance choreographed by John Hertz in the 1970s and inspired by illustrations of waltzers from the 1810s and 1820s.

No experience is required, and these classes are intended to be accessible to less experienced waltzers, but previous couple dance experience will be helpful. The workshops are somewhat sequential; basic turning waltz will be taught most intensely in the first workshop and reviewed more lightly in the later ones.